But instead of heading for Laugh Tale, Shanks decides to take a different approach: Learning as much as he can about the true enemies of the world—Imu and the Celestial Dragons.
It’s safe to say Shanks inherited Roger’s will to learn the truth about the world, but how much did he know before going to the Holy Land? Roger didn’t want to tell him anything that happened on Laugh Tale, but there’s someone else who could’ve pointed Shanks in the Celestial Dragon’s direction…Blackbeard!
[Thanks to LunaPianArt for putting this Blackbeard idea in my head, by the way.]
“Well, everything except skateboarding. Where’s a guy gotta go up here to do a 720 kickflip?”
Here’s what I’m thinking: Shanks confronts Blackbeard who spills some beans about the Celestial Dragons being the final boss of the world and the ones behind, well, everything. After their battle, Shanks decides learning the truth for himself and feigns loyalty to Team Imu. Makes sense, right?
Does that mean Shanks intentionally attacked a World Government ship to steal the gum-gum fruit? Does it also mean Shanks purposely got his arm bitten off to remove the Holy Knight’s tattoo? Yeah, probably. This guy has been planning to take down the World Government, something Gol D. Roger couldn’t do, for a looong time.
Well, Imu & Saturn VS Davy Tennant D. Xebec, Edward Newgate, and Kaido Smith to be more accurate. But that fight’s setup at the very end. Let’s talk about what happened elsewhere in this chapter.
…Not much.
Seriously. Just a lot of running around and off-screen battles. If I didn’t read this for free, I’d demand my money back and a free pumpkin spice latte!
…Um, Garp finally noticed the hundreds of dead civilian bodies spread across the island. I guess that’s the reason he decided not to be a Navy Admiral, as to not be directly under the Celestial Dragons’ control. Great idea, Garp! Too bad entire civilizations on unaffiliated World Government islands are still dying in Human Hunts and you’re basically letting it happen. But, it’s okay, Y’all. Because even though Garp’s complacent, he feels bad about all the mass murdering and genocide. Ugh!
The Rocks Pirate joining the “No Kings” protest.
There’s still the chance Garp is the one who creates SWORD but again, what’s his endgame?
Other than everything that’s happening with Teen Dragon, Baby Shanks, Davy Rocks, Marshall Mathers D. Teech, and the poor innocents being hunted by rich authoritarians with unchecked power…I’m kinda uninterested.
I’m waiting…
I’m waiting to see Kuma, Ivankov, and Ginny escape God Valley.
I’m waiting for Dragon to hide Baby Shanks in a treasure cheat so a pirate crew can take him away.
I’m waiting to see Dragon confronting a Garp who seems completely uninterested in acknowledging the Celestial Dragons MASS MURDERING the residents of an entire island!
I’m waiting for Rocks to— Hold up! Let’s talk about Monkey D. Garp for a second.
Garp! Garp! He’s our man! If he can’t do it, no one can! Except for the Admirals, Holy Knights, Five Elders…
Reading this chapter, I couldn’t stop thinking about Gaza, The Democratic Republic of Congo, and other places in our world where genocide is currently happening.
Because of that, was the toughest chapter of One Piece to get through.
Ah, screw it! No review today, kids. I’m just not up to it. Here, watch this video from an interesting One Piece YouTuber I recently discovered. Redgeek, out.
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Da-ba-dee, da-ba-di! Bluegeek’s here to save the day! You brats want a review? I’ll give you one.
At God Valley, the Celestial Dragons are on vacation just trying to have a little fun, but Baby Monkey D. Dragon’s all “Boo hoo! People are dying!” People die all the time! Dragon definitely gets a weather devil fruit ’cause that guy’s a total snowflake.
You know what? Let just go through the chapter and talk about everything that comes to mind, okay?
Shakky. She’s just there to be the ultimate damsel-in-distress. That’s her role in the story: To get the Roger Pirates to God Valley. …Ow! I rolled my eyes so hard they nearly fell out of my skull. Next!
Looks like Wang Zhi was the government narc all along. That slimeball really set himself up good, considering he controls Pirate Island for decades until Blackbeard’s takeover. There’s a lesson in there somewhere, kids. Let me know when you find it.
Garling is such a bastard! He found his God Valley hookup just to kill her. What a great villain to hate. It’s no wonder Shamrock’s a total dickhead too. I can’t wait for both of their downfalls.
I’m sure you’ve heard of my mother, Catherine Zeta-D. Jones.
Monkey D. Dragon. I’d figure it’d take a while, but it seems like Dragon learned just how disgusting the Celestial Dragons are early in his Navy career. The God Valley incident was plenty enough to send Dragon down the revolutionary path.
So…why is Garp still apart of the organization? What’s going on here? Is Garp somehow playing some sort of long game against the World Government, or does he truly believe he can change things from within the system? I’m looking forward to Daddy Garp and Dragon’s final conversation before Lil’ D quits the Navy.
An authoritarian government invades a sovereign nation, forcing its citizens to work for them as slaves while destroying their places of knowledge to keep them ignorant and easier to control.
Thank goodness One Piece is fictional and that type of thing never happens in the real world.
The Celestial Dragons have got the whole conquering other nations role down pact, huh? Guess they’d had plenty of practice. Elbaph’s school and library are in danger of being destroyed. Something tells me Loki also wouldn’t mind if those two buildings were burned down. Protecting them is gonna become just as important as rescuing the kidnapped children. Mark my words!
Glad Robin’s gonna fight Sommers, but she’s at a huge disadvantage fighting someone with thorn powers. Maybe her and Chopper can pull off a win. Guard Point’s pretty durable. Then again, someone’s gotta save the kids, so I guess that’s gonna be Chopper. Just kick the little brats away with Monster Point and pray they don’t tattle.
So…uh…anyone know what The Harley is talking about?
Safe to say the Harley’s passages matches the mural. Let’s assume each area of mural under a Harley passage represents that particular message. If so, let’s try figuring out what’s going on based off of what we currently know about the One Piece world and its past.
The First World
Ok… Ah, the Mother Flame. Cities. …Maybe the world was advanced and that civilization discovered the Mother Flame. Things went downhill from there and somehow the planet was destroyed. Remember, we recently learned the One Piece world was destroyed twice. Once during the Void Century and the other, I presume, was way way WAY back in an advanced age.
If the Sun God is Nika, then the Earth God was Imu? Or, whoever had the Earth God powers during that time? And does all this earth talk symbolize the creation of the Red Line and it subsequent separation of the planet into four blues? Sure, let’s go with that.
The Second World
“The Forest God tamed demons” could mean during this low point in history, devil fruits somehow appeared in the world and were used to fight the demons? [Wait, wait, wait! Does that mean demons were unleashed because the ancient civilization dug too deep for the Mother Flame and awoke them? Like when the Dwarves in Lord of The Rings mined to deep and awoke the Balrog? Hmm…]
Those of the half-moon and moon dreamed? Hmm… Lunarians and…some other race of people, I guess. The sea god storming could mean devil fruit users gaining their water weakness. If so, it’s interesting something happened to give them that vulnerability rather than it always being there.
The World Tree also plays a role here but I’m not sure what that was. Unless… Were devil fruits born from it?! Devil fruits originated on Elbaph. A place where horned giants that could be mistaken for demons lived and has an area they call the Underworld… Fascinating!
Apocalyptic Graffiti. Usually you only see that in New Jersey.
We see flying arks in the mural similar to the one God Enel built (no doubt from ancient blueprints he found or stole somewhere). Did the Lunarians and others escape the demon infested planet in order to live peacefully on the moon? If so, are they still there? I don’t think it was ever confirmed if anyone was still alive up there except for the Space Pirates before Enel got there.
“Man killed the sun and became god” I take that as Team Imu (the united countries that founded the World Government) attacking the last remnant of the formerly vast ancient civilization (now only one island, Laugh Tale), flooding the planet, and taking over the world. Imu later moves into the Lunarians abandoned territory atop the Red Line and creates Marijoa. Basically, The Second World describes what happened during the Void Century.
So, Loki was a jerk since day one, huh? Who wanna bet he did all of those “pranks” as a way to toughen up the people of Elbaph? Don’t get me wrong, Loki’s absolutely an arc antagonistic but the Celestial Dragons will always be the worst of the worst in One Piece. I bet the Holy Knights want Loki to kill Luffy AKA Nika 2.0. Why else would they offer him a place at the inbred Celestial Dragon knights table?
Start the countdown for Shank’s flashback, Y’all. It’s gotta happen this arc with his (most likely) brother appearing on the island. I wonder will Shanks himself return to Elbaph and reunite with Luffy? Hmm…
Look. She was in a hurry, okay?! Not everyone has time to put on pants you know.
You know what? I’m starting to think King Imu doesn’t like Joy Boy.
That Joy Boy haki blast sealed Saint Saturn’s fate. Imu didn’t like that one bit. I guess it triggered some serious PTSD from a previous encounter with the original J.B. Notice how Imu blamed Saturn for “Joy Boy’s” escape, not Luffy. Oh, boy! Imu has a button you should never press and Joy Boy is it. Could Imu’s desire to destroy Gear 5 Luffy lead him to making huge mistakes that’ll cost him everything? I’d say yes.
Jaygarcia Saturn is dead. Very dead. Super duper dead. There’s a clear link to the Five Elder’s power and Imu. They serve him well—everything’s good in the Mary Geoise hood. They screw-up? It’s a free trip to the Shadow Realm. A gruesome trip too. I know he’s evil, but I really felt bad for St. Satur— Hahahaha! Oh, man. I just couldn’t hold it. Yeah, that bastard deserved it.
Mammoth Base Opera Castle 